Has anyone tried to use ‘George Burns’ as a parent? Is it fertile?
Jim,
I have two seedlings from OP seeds of George Burns. They are 2 years old and both are minis (Micro mini?). I Have a pic on the RHA website of “Sherman’s Sweetie” that shows the bloom of the nicest one. While the blooms are beautiful, They lack vigor and on average only put out 3-4 blooms last season.
I bought George last year to use for breeding and got fair hipset, but only had one seedling so far, and I accidentally decapitated it trying to pry the seed off the top of the sprout. I should have been more patient!
It’s a tough one to get clean crosses with as female parent as the stamens are entwined in the petals so it’s hard to get them all removed. I also have seedlings form it as pollen parent that should probably bloom this second year. The pollen is fairly well received by most of my garden roses.
Randy
George Burns is a very fertile rose as a female, and accepts even species pollen for me in my greenhouse. I can’t give percentages, but I have had at least some seeds germinate from George Burns x R. virginiana. I have used several plants that have the intertwined stamen thing going on, but I don’t remember which is which. Any plant that I have to mutilate so badly to remove all of the pollen that I get no seed gets ejected from the breeding program, so GB must have at least been tolerable. It also is prone to set open-pollinated hips, as Randy said. I don’t know anything about it as a male parent. It is one of the few roses that I feel could grow more strongly in my greenhouse, it makes very twiggy, short growth, but that may just be my particular plant.
Thanks for the info. I think I’ll give it a try this year.
I really hate that intertwined stamen thing as you mention Roger, Double Delight is one of the worst of all. No wonder there’s only one seed pod parent of it, and plenty of offspring via the pollen. Last year I got sunburned from being so patient to remove all the anthers without hurting the stamens too much. That is why I often use Double Delight’s offspring Mon Cheri instead. Cologne does that too. I wonder what makes that happen.
Enrique